Classic City Rev

Author's note-The thoughts below come from a column I wrote  that first appeared in The Toccoa Record on March 5, 2014.  My appreciation is extended to Tom Law editor and publisher for permission to use in this space. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the season of Lent in the life of the church. In the church I serve we began Lent with an Ash Wednesday service in which ashes were placed on the foreheads of our congregants with the solemn words of “Repent and believe the Gospel.”   Lent is a season of forty days, excluding Sundays, leading up to Easter.   The number forty is significant in the Bible.   A period of forty days usually marks a time of testing and trial. In the story of Noah the scriptures say that it rained for forty days and forty nights causing the Great Flood that necessitated the building of the arc. The Hebrew people spent forty years in the wilderness before entering the Promised Land.   The prophet Elijah had his own forty day experience. The Gospel

"Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it," is quote attributed by many to Mark Twain but some attribute the quote to a friend of Twain's named Charles Dudley Warner.  Regardless of who said it the fact is true. Everybody does talk about the weather and it does seem that no one does much about it. The recent rains have gotten me thinking a good bit about the weather.  There is a lot of water falling from across the Great State of Georgia these days.  From the Okefenokee Swamp to the shadow of Lookout Mountain folks are getting wet.  A couple of Saturdays ago I spent an enjoyable morning sitting in my breakfast nook drinking coffee and watching the snow cover my back yard.  By afternoon, all that was left of the morning's dusting was nothing at all.   All in all the weather has mostly been an inconvenience the past few weeks but nothing to cause any earth shattering changes to my life.  Others haven't been so fortunate.  Ther

Last week was not one of the greatest weeks in the annals of American History.  On Tuesday the President delivered his State of the Union Address to a joint session of Congress.  Beyond the pageantry of the event, State of the Union speeches are often forgotten soon after they take place.  The event is largely ceremonial, with the day in an day out grind of governing taking place in other venues. Last week's event was more noted for two exchanges surrounding the event rather than the actual contents of the President's remarks.  The first occurred when President Trump refused to shake the hand of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi when offered.  The second occurred upon the conclusion of President's speech when the Speaker ripped her copy of the President's speech into pieces. It would be imprudent in this blog to pass judgments on the actions of the two participants .  Suffice to say, the actions are indicative of the rampant divisiveness that is taking place in our na